XVI INTEODUCTIO]!?. 



it, but did not succeed. The bird, however, was soon in the air 

 again, flying about as before. The watching dodge was again 

 tried, and this time the bird was marked to, and raised from, its 

 nest. There lay the nest, with its four pretty eggs, on the side 

 of a dry hillock where grew some heath and grass, in the midst 

 of a swampy spot. It was evidently the nest of the "Wood- Sand- 

 piper, as the eggs agreed exactly with those of that species which 

 I had, in my collection, fi-om the late Mr. Hoy. Indeed, we got 

 so near to the bii'd, that it was not difficult to determine the spe- 

 cies. But it was, notwithstanding, desirable to authenticate the 

 eggs, so as to leave no room for doubt. "We now made several 

 vain endeavours to shoot the bird ; and then, to give it time to 

 settle, left the spot, and wandered, for about half an hour, to the 

 west side of the heather, the nest being situated at the east end 

 of it. But, previously to our doing so, Mr. Reay strayed with 

 me in the direction of the spot where I had at first lain concealed 

 to mark the bird to its nest, and when we arrived within a few 

 paces of the spot a Shoveller rose, and there, amidst the heather, 

 was its nest containing eight eggs. On the return of our party 

 towards the nesting place of the Wood- Sandpiper we raised a 

 Reeve, which we had before sprung twice or thrice. This time 

 it rose from its nest, in which were the usual four eggs in a per- 

 fectly fresh state. At length we reached the nest, the great 

 piize of the day, but the bird was not on. Both male and fe- 

 male, however, soon made their appearance over head, and a 

 futile attempt was made to shoot them : they then both took 

 off and settled by the side of a small pool in the middle of the 

 heather. Mr. Reay then crept up and succeeded in killing the 

 male bml. Thus, after several hours labour, we succeeded in 

 establishing the fact, that our find was really the nest of the "Wood- 

 Sandpiper. And we had the satisfaction of knowing that this 

 was the only instance of its having been taken in Britain. 



Thus, in our afternoon's ramble over the Car, we had found the 

 nests of six species of water fowl, three of which must be con- 

 sidered rare ; and one had never before been found breeding in 

 the British Islands. We did not see a single nest of the Peewit, 

 the commonest bird of the Car ; but, during our rambles to and 



